Resident Evil Village adds layers of additional complexity to the standard Resident Evil formula of exploration, action, and scares. There are so many techniques, the game doesn’t even explain everything you can do — the tutorials are surprisingly sparse when there’s so much you need to know. After dozens of hours playing through Capcom’s latest spooky survival horror, we’ve found some features the game simply does not tell you. We’re not talking about the obvious stuff either, like animal hunting or interacting with treasures to combine them. This is the really obscure stuff.
And one of those obscure moves you might never use in your first playthrough is the push. There are ways to earn extra treasure, there are ways to get free ammo, and you can even speed up your knife combo. You might not think RE8 has anything in common with Doom Eternal, but there’s one powerful technique both games share. These are the tips that are multiple playthroughs in the making, and we’re sure there’s way more to discover still.
More Resident Evil Village guides:
Beginner’s Guide | Easter Eggs & References | All Boss Fights Tips & Tricks | How To Solve All Puzzles In Castle Dimitrescu | How To Solve The Doll Workshop Puzzle | Rare, Juicy & Quality Meat Locations | How To Complete The Necklace With Two Holes | All Treasure Chests Locations | All Labyrinth Ball Locations | All Goat Collectibles Locations | All Gun Parts Locations | Lucky Number 7 Guide | Heisenberg’s Hammer Treasure Location
Speeding Up Your Knife Combos
Your knife combo requires a long cooldown after two swings. To speed up and attack faster, just guard / block right after one or two swings. Briefly guarding will reset the knife attack delay, allowing you to attack faster and deal more damage. It takes a little bit of practice, but once you get in the groove, it’s possible to dish out lightning fast combos with your knife. Attack, attack, split-second block, and repeat.
You can also start with a stab then transition into your normal knife combo. The extra stab won’t slow you down.
Increase Firing Speed With Quick-Swapping
If you played Doom Eternal, you’ll know all about the power of quick-swapping slow weapons. The same exact trick works here — using the Rifle and a Shotgun, you can fire then swap to your alternate gun, fire, and swap back to speed up your fire rate. Rifles and Shotguns start out with very slow fire rates, and the only way to speed it up without purchasing upgrades is with quick-swapping. No practice needed here. You can fire as fast as you swap to a new gun.
Knocking Enemies Back With Guard
Here’s a powerful ability that’s basically required on higher difficulty. In combat, if you guard an attack, try tapping guard again. After a successful guard, tapping guard again to perform a special knockback push move. It won’t just knock back the enemy that attacked you. It’ll knock back all the enemies in your vicinity, briefly stunning them and giving you a chance to blast them or run away to a safer location. This even works with the powerful endgame enemies!
Finding Rare Diamonds
Crystals and diamonds are a lot more common than you might realize. Look around your environment for a shiny glow. You can shoot down crystals and sell them for big bucks — and you can play the entire game without even knowing there are treasures hanging out in the environment. It wasn’t until almost the end of the game I realized there were crystals to collect (and sell), so if you find yourself in a cave, canyon, or dungeon, always look in those spots you don’t immediately see. Turn around, look up, and look for cracks in the wall you can blast open with a pipe bomb.
Capacity & Health Upgrade Trick
You can earn “free” health and ammo with a simple capacity / health upgrade trick. When you purchase a weapon capacity upgrade, your weapon will have full ammo. You can get a lot of valuable ammo by upgrading when your weapon is empty. Shotgun and rifle shells aren’t cheap. Wait until after an encounter, then go back for your capacity upgrade for a full stack.
You can also save your Health Upgrade meals for when you need to heal. When you cook a Max Health Upgrade, you’ll be fully healed. Just a simple way to avoid wasting those valuable Health Drinks.
That’s five simple tricks you can use to make life easier. These aren’t exactly beginner tips, but they’re absolutely not explained by the game. If you’re looking for more secrets, we’re still delving into every aspect of Resident Evil Village, so check out our guides list for more.
